Peri Vs Reina
by Roxius
Summary: Two women driven by an irrefutable lust for bloodshed come to confront each other from opposing sides. A vicious but fleeting battle takes place. Fire Emblem Fates.
Peri laughed at the top of her lungs. This was what she went into battle for. This was what she considered the greatest sense of 'fun' imaginable. While others were dying in countless droves around her, she in comparison had never felt more truly alive. Her madness was so great that it had overtaken all of her other senses, at least for the short while that this battle would last.

Flesh and tendon were torn, shredded and scattered after every successive, wild swing of her crimson-soaked blade. Her youthful face had already become drenched with streaks of red splatter; the spilled blood mixed into the strands of her blue and pink hair, which made them resemble a devil's horns. That same blood also coated the armored plates equipped on her faithful steed, enhancing the woman's demonic image even more. Her terrifying appearance and her shrill cackle were treated as signs of oncoming death that, once spotted, could no longer be avoided with any amount of power. The brave yet foolish men or women who attempted to cut her down were swiftly reduced to chunks of lifeless meat. She swung at every Hoshidan soldier she could conceivably find. The ones that she didn't get to stab herself, she had them trampled beneath her horse's hooves. The amount of death and destruction that Peri brought to every battle was enough for Prince Xander to establish a special set of rules. For the sake of his own men's protection, he urged them to stay as far away from Peri as possible when she was fighting. It was not foolish to consider the very real possibilities that Peri would resort to killing allies if she ran out of enemies to slay when she hit her frenzy's 'peak'. Peri's brutal methods of fighting and killing her opponents were considered to be unrefined, uncontrollable and reprehensibly grotesque, but there was no doubt that she did good work on the front lines. As long as she didn't get herself killed, Prince Xander left Peri to her own devices. She alone could be considered the strength equivalent of a squad.

As Peri's blade effortlessly slipped through the upper-half of a screaming Hoshidan's temple, the young woman herself happened to look up toward the sky. She thought she had heard something. It had sounded like wings flapping but she hadn't been sure. However, with the sun glaring so bright and no clouds to shield it, Peri was unable to see anything. She squinted her eyes and brought one hand over her face. Peri could hear those flapping wings again, just like before...and they were getting closer...

Suddenly, a large shadow swooped down in front of Peri. The young woman felt an intense jolt of pain, like a fire, in her left shoulder-blade. A spear had pierced straight through her upper-arm. Peri flew backwards, knocked off of her mount by the force of the strike and collapsing into a puddle of drying blood behind her. Peri cried out. Her horse attempted to return to her, dutiful as it always was. However, it was quickly put down as several steel arrows lodged themselves into its neck. The equine dropped without even a whinny. Landing on top of the horse was an enormous golden Kinshi. The Kinshi were a species of enormous but beautifully-feathered birds that had been domesticated by ancient Hoshidans for use as flying mounts. A woman was riding atop this particular Kinshi. She was clad in the expected Kinshi Knight garb. She had her long, cerulean-dark hair draped over her right shoulder and an X-shaped scar in the center of her face.

"So you're the one who has been killing so many of our men. I was curious to see your face, so I chose to aim for your arm instead." Reina said. However, she could only assume that the injury and subsequent fall Peri had suffered would leave her incapacitated for several moments. Long enough time for Reina to finish her off. If she had to admit to it, though, she would say it was a shame to have to kill the younger woman. Someone so thoroughly blood-thirsty would have made for a very good companion. Not many others in Hoshido shared the same penchant for violence and murder like Reina did.

Suddenly, Peri sat up. Warm, wet blood gushed down the length of her left arm. Her eyes were dilated, abundant tears and running mascara mixing together with the blood already on her face. This was a hypocrisy that went completely unnoticed by the young psychopath; she loved to maim and murder others, but when it came to her own pain, she couldn't stand it. The spear had snapped in two after the initial stabbing and what was left had been pulled out. Peri clutched her hand over the gaping wound as she stood up. In her other, trembling hand, she clenched her sword with such an unbridled amount of fury that she could have broken her palm's skin against the hilt.

"You...you stabbed me!" Peri screamed, "You...you meanie! You jerk! You bitch! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

"Huh." Reina's eyebrows raised slightly.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll stab you and rip your arms and legs off and take you home and squeeze lemon juice into the wounds! It's going to hurt SO bad!"

"You really are just a little girl. I can't believe someone like this could have been able to kill so many. I think I was told about you once. Prince Xander's retainer, correct?"

"I'm not little! And I'm going to make you pay for that!"

Reina was mildly surprised. She had not expected Peri to get up again so quickly, or even at all, after that attack. However, there was a tiny part of her, the barely-restrained serial killer that resided inside of her, which was overjoyed to see her opponent was able to continue fighting. Reina removed her sword and her bow before climbing off of her Kinshi. Fighting from the air against an opponent like this one would have made things too easy. Reina wanted to experience the satisfaction of sliding her blade across this girl's throat up close and personal.

Peri continued to hurl out both threats and profanities, but she gradually broke down into uttering only choked sobs. Her entire face was a muddled, dirty mess of black and red. She wanted to throw her tantrums like she typically did, but unless she actually killed this woman, there was no way she would get off with only having her arm cut. This woman, who was the first one to land a hit on her since this battle began, had come here for her head. Peri very carefully moved her hand off of her shoulder wound. It hurt so badly, it made her want to make a cup of her favorite tea, curl up in bed, and hide there for the rest of the day. However, Peri was still aware of her own mortality enough to know that she had to fight here or suffer death. One of the spells Princess Elise had cast on the soldiers before the battle was one meant to help dull pain. Peri could feel it finally beginning to kick in. It made her skin tingle, but not in the good way like killing people felt. Not in the good way that killing this woman was going to feel.

Reina raised her bow and aimed to fire a single arrow at Peri's heart. Even if the arrow did not manage to pierce through Peri's breast-plate, it would surely be enough to knock the wind out of her. Reina pulled back on the arrow as she held it against the bow's string. However, Peri was quick to react with a projectile of her own; lifting her blade over her head and wielding it like a javelin, she hurled the sword straight at the other woman. Reina gasped. She wasn't quite willing to risk getting a sword embedded into her forehead. She let go of her bow and side-stepped to the right. Reina observed silently as the sword harmlessly flew off into the distance, eventually landing in a puddle of mud. When she looked back, Peri was already charging her with a Hoshidan hand-ax. She had picked it up off of one of the many corpses surrounding them. Reina concluded that a bow was useless in a fight like this; she tossed them aside and unsheathed her own blade instead.

Peri wound up her arm and let her hand-ax rush in to close the distance, hoping a great deal to land a hit on Reina's face. A single strike there and the battle would be over. Of course, Reina herself could not allow that. She blocked the ax's swing with her sword and then pushed back with it, forcing Peri off of her balance. Peri struggled to stay in place, but unfortunately, she was not in the top fighting form she would have preferred. Reina pushed harder. Peri tripped on the wet ground underneath her. Intending to seize every advantage, Reina took a swipe at cutting open Peri's face. The tip of her blade managed to graze Peri's cheek, but the younger woman was falling back too fast for Reina to land that finishing strike she wanted. Peri rolled away as soon as she felt her back touch the ground. Reina had tried to stab Peri through her gut with a quick downward thrust, yet she had missed and now the blade was caught in the mud. Reina wondered if she could blame this slowness of hers on age, but personally, she would have rather not. Peri got up onto one knee and tried to cut open Reina's arm while it was still within reach. To save her arm, Reina abandoned her sword. Peri threw the hand-ax at Reina's head, but just like with the sword from earlier, it missed. Peri grabbed Reina's sword and took it for herself. Reina was forced to take a page from Peri's book as she hastily scavenged a new blade from a nearby body.

They exchanged several blows, but it was obvious from the start that Reina's swings were stronger. Peri wore a winced expression; she was both worn out from killing so many soldiers previously and the injury in her left arm rendered it near-useless. However, adrenaline, rage and an overall desire to survive were what pushed her to keep fighting with vigilance. Mostly rage. She hated this woman. She hated, hated, HATED her. She came practically out of nowhere, flew in that ugly white goose, stabbed her in the shoulder, killed her horse, and was now trying to kill her too. Peri's entire day had been ruined because of this woman. She was not about ready to forgive these transgressions against her by any means. Even if Reina got down on her knees and bowed her head in apology, it wouldn't be enough. Peri would want that head sitting in her fruit bowl first before she'd ever consider forgiving the older woman.

Peri spat a wad of blood, which was not her own, at Reina's face to try and distract her. Although their blades clashed together, Reina could not stop herself from instinctively shutting her left eye as the blood hit her cheek. Her grip on her sword, and thus the pressure her sword forced against Peri's, was weakened for that one instant. Peri knocked Reina's sword aside in that same instant. Then, she released one hand off of her sword, reached toward her pocket, and removed a small knife. Her 'gutting knife', as she liked to call it. Xander's personal retainer thrust the knife's tip into Reina's stomach with intent to disembowel. Reina took a step backward before the knife could dig any deeper into her internal organs, although the pain was something she had not felt in some time. Blood dribbled down the front of her Kinshi Knight uniform and poured onto the dirt.

Reina smiled wryly through the pain, even as some of the color drained away from her face. "You...you have some nasty little tricks up your sleeve. Never thought you'd try something like that. Most of the warriors I fight have more honor than that."

"I'm going to make you spill your guts!" Peri cackled. "Literally! Ha ha ha!"

"You're not a warrior at all. You're not a child either. You're mad. Stark-raving mad. I'm surprised that anyone would allow you to join this army, much less that you would be one of the assigned retainers of Prince Xander himself." Reina shook her head.

"I'm NOT crazy, but I AM mad! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to chop you up into little pieces!" Peri screamed back at her. "You stabbed me in the shoulder! You cut my face! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you and stomp all over your corpse!"

Reina reached down and touched the first real wound that Peri had dealt her. It wasn't by the greatest of luck that she had been stabbed in the stomach. However, the wound felt too shallow to be considered a mortal injury just yet. There was a chance it could get worse if this fight between them continued at length, but as of now, she could bear the pain. Reina felt no negative emotion well up inside her as she accepted these facts. She was not fearful for her life nor furious that Peri had managed to land a strike on her. In fact, she was elated. She loved to battle and she loved to cut down her enemies before her as if they were reeds in the wind. However, opponents who actually gave her trouble like this one were becoming depressingly rare. This fight could have been the challenge she had been searching for, but...she was not going to let her excitement get the better of her.

After all, it didn't mean, even with Peri offering a decent challenge, that the odds weren't still heavily stacked in Reina's favor, because they most certainly were.

"Do you see this scar on my face? My body is littered with old wounds like this, from my shoulders down to my ankles. Years and years of battle are under my belt. You, on the other hand, get so upset from a simple scratch on the cheek that you throw a fit. You probably don't have any scars on your body to show off at all. You're tougher than you look and you know your way with weapons, but that's about it. I have more experience than you can possibly handle, you mad woman. Oh, when I finally am able to see that shocked look of defeat on your face as the light fades from your eyes, it is going to be a thrill. I hope, until that time, you are able to give me your best."

Peri sniffled. She held her knife in one hand and Reina's sword in her other hand. "I'm...I'm gonna pluck out your eyeballs with my fingernails and force-feed them back to you!"

"Yes, you do keep saying things like that, but you're not going to get the chance because I'M going to kill YOU in this battle." Reina smirked. Truly, she was just about as mad as Peri was. They were pretty much a perfect match for each other on the battlefield.

"I'll turn you into a beef stew and feed you back to your family!"

"That's a new one. I've never heard a threat like that before. How about I try it then? I'm going to slit your throat very, very slowly so that you could feel every single tendon snap apart."

"I'm...I'm going to KILL YOU TO DEATH!"

"Now you're becoming incoherent. I find some joy in that! A panicked foe is more fun to stab than a calm one."

Peri released her wild battle cry and she once again hurled herself at Reina, her sword raised high over her head. Reina braced herself for what was about to come. She had no possible idea on how long this battle between them would last. While she was more than confident that this battle would end with her victory, there was never such a thing as 'sure-fire' when on the battlefield. Peri could very well be the one to bring an end to Reina's illustrious career as one of Hoshido's most accomplished soldiers. As much as Reina loved issuing out death with the swing of her spear, she did not find the idea of dying herself to be very appealing. She accepted pain with dignity unlike Peri, but in a similarity shared between them, neither woman wanted to take their last breath in these blood-soaked plains. Their swords slammed together with enough strength to make their muscles throb.

At that moment, Peri was stuck between two mindsets: her vengeful side, who wished to see this woman die as quickly and painfully as possible and her blood-loving side, who wanted to be able to enjoy this match thoroughly. It wanted to break down Reina slowly so as to view every moment of her degradation until she eventually reached her abysmal, pitiful death. Either one would be fine right now, but Peri felt like she was gradually beginning to shift her attitude toward the latter. It would be so much more satisfying.


End file.
